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The stories near you
• Fresh Take Florida: Former UF quarterback faces years in prison, sex offender status if convicted. "Even for someone with a previously clean record, no one who was convicted of five counts of child pornography escaped prison time, according to the review of cases in Alachua County Circuit Court dating to 1996."
• The Alligator: Rezoning controversy in Alachua County Public Schools, explained. "One-third of the district’s elementary schools are operating over capacity. The district has two options: spot rezoning, which rezones only a few schools, and comprehensive rezoning, which impacts the entire district."
• WUFT News: Williston City Council considers four-day workweek for public works field staff. "The employees currently work the standard five-day, 40-hour workweek, but the public works department proposed a four-day, 40-hour workweek. The proposal suggests employees would work 10-hour shifts and would be given an extra day off."
• WUFT News: Gainesville music scene upset after Santa Fe College Foundation’s MiniMaxi Warehouse evicts all bands. "In fact, an era is coming to a close, as these bands are losing the space where they have met and practiced for over 20 years — the MiniMaxi Warehouse, a storage facility off Waldo Road in northeast Gainesville."
• WUFT News: ‘Eco Chase Challenge’ seeks to further conservation and sustainability. "The Alachua County Office of Waste Alternatives is inviting residents to participate in a two-month environmental scavenger hunt that began Feb. 22 and will conclude on April 22, which is Earth Day."
• WUFT News: Get ready for the Marion County Master Gardeners’ 2023 Spring Festival. "For 16 of the years of the Spring Festival’s existence, Laura Perdomo and her business, the Peacock Cottage, have been attending the Spring Festival as a vendor. The Peacock Cottage offers house plants and specializes in African Violets."
• WUFT News: Former UF and NFL football player teaches children about kindness. "Major Wright, a former University of Florida standout and NFL star has been visiting schools in Alachua County to get students excited about spreading kindness."
• WUFT News: ‘Native Gardens’ play blossoms at the Hippodrome Theatre starting Friday. "Under the beaming suburban sun, two newly neighboring couples appreciate the pleasure and beauty of gardening. However — as revealed through a property-line dispute that spirals into an evaluation of vast cultural differences — every rose has its thorn."
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Around the state
• WFSU-Tallahassee: A plan to build more affordable housing in Florida could pass soon. "The Florida Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan plan to create more affordable housing for the state's residents on the second day of the 60-day lawmaking session. The measure is now heading to the House, where it's expected to pass."
• Florida Politics: Federal appeals court upholds Florida’s post-Parkland ban on under-21 gun buys. "Florida’s law passed in the wake of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018 that prohibits the sale of rifles and long guns to people under the age of 21 remains in effect after a federal appeals court upheld the law."
• WFSU-Tallahassee: A bill to change Florida school start times passes its first committee. "School start times for many of the state’s middle and high schoolers would shift under a bill that has passed its first committee. The goal is to get teenagers more – and better – sleep."
• Florida Politics: House asks feds to put ‘soft drinks’ on same list as alcohol, tobacco advances. "What groceries people buy and their role in society’s ills came under lengthy debate, as a House Memorial advanced asking the feds to prohibit soda purchases with government food assistance."
• WMFE-Orlando: Too much polluted agricultural water threatens Everglades' engineered wetlands, study says. "The report says the water is stressing engineered wetlands aimed at improving water quality in the fragile river of grass."
• WGCU-Fort Myers: Have bats in your home? Exclusions should occur before April bat maternity season starts. "During that time, it is illegal to block bats from their roosts. If bats are excluded during maternity season, flightless young can be trapped inside the structure and die, which isn’t good for you or the bats."
From NPR News
• Politics: Breaking down President Biden's latest budget proposal
• National: Biden administration releases Guantánamo inmate, its fourth transfer in a month
• Business: General Motors is offering buyouts in an effort to cut $2 billion in costs
• Politics: Personal information of members of Congress exposed in health data breach
• National: The push to rebuild the U.S.'s nuclear stockpile
• National: Former NBA star Shawn Kemp is released from jail after arrest in a drive-by shooting
• Science: The first wiring map of an insect's brain hints at incredible complexity
Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.